Bristol's four-weekly bins collections idea 'dropped'
The petition created by the council's Labour Party called for the proposed changes to be shelved and has been signed by more than 12,000 people.Currently, black bins in Bristol are collected every two weeks but a public consultation proposed a series of changes to improve falling recycling rates - including cutting collections to either three times per month or four.Many English local authorities already have three-week collections.Switching to a three-weekly black bin collection would save the council £1.3m a year, while a four-weekly collection would save £2.3m, the council had previously said.
Councillor Martin Fodor, chair of the environment committee, said: "The four-weekly option was put in the consultation as an outlier for modelling purposes and I made clear it was always unlikely to go ahead. "Based on what we've heard and the strength of feeling that this has generated across the city, the Greens will not be supporting any proposals put forward to move to four-weekly collections at this time."Councillor Tom Renhard, Labour leader on the council, said: "It has been clear from the start that this policy is totally unworkable. "The Greens dropping it will be a relief to all, particularly those with larger families or newborns, who need fortnightly black bin collections."He added: "Waste and recycling collection is the one service that every council tax payer uses and relies upon; it needs to be protected from their cuts."The results of the public consultation, which ended on Monday, will be presented to a cross-party group of councillors who will decide on any changes at an unknown date.
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Spectator
7 hours ago
- Spectator
It feels good to see the return of the St George's Cross
There you have it: in certain parts of England it's easier to fly the Palestine flag than the English flag. Take Tower Hamlets in London. The Palestine colours fluttered from lampposts there for months in the aftermath of Hamas's 7 October pogrom. Yet when patriots tried to hoist up the St George's flag this week, they found themselves surrounded by officious council workers. Their flags were unceremoniously yanked down. Seems English pride is haram in modern London. The flag wars in Tower Hamlets are so telling. There was a period when the Palestine flag was omnipresent there. It was untouchable. That perhaps wasn't surprising: the council is led by Lutfur Rahman of the pro-Palestine Aspire party. His office said it would 'destabilise community cohesion' to take the flags down. It was only following a legal threat from UK Lawyers for Israel in March last year that the council finally dismantled all the bunting. The borough's jobsworths were far quicker to act when some white fellas tried to fly the St George's flag this week. Within hours council officials had their poles out to dislodge these wicked emblems from local lampposts. One of the men confronted the busybody flag-draggers. 'The whole of the Isle of Dogs has paid for these flags to be hung', he said, so who are you to demand they 'be taken down'? Then he asked the killer question: 'What about all the Palestine flags?' We should all be asking this. We should all be asking how on earth there's a borough in the capital of the United Kingdom where you'll get an easier ride if you fly the flag of a foreign nation than if you fly one of the flags of the kingdom itself. I won't lie, that there are communities in London that felt more chilled around the flag under which more than a thousand Jews had just been murdered than they do around the flag of England itself worries me enormously. It horrifies me, in fact. It isn't just Tower Hamlets. It isn't only boroughs with large Muslim populations. You see the Palestine flag everywhere. It flies on university campuses. Bourgeois leftists wrap themselves in it on their depressing weekly trudges against the Jewish state. A vast Palestine flag hangs from the Cotswolds HQ of the green energy firm owned by sexagenarian hippy Dale Vince, much to the chagrin of locals. Never mind Israel's supposed colonisation of Palestine – it sometimes feels like Palestine has colonised Britain. It feels good – admit it – to see the St George's Cross make a comeback in the midst of this Palestine mania. The England-loving insurgents in Tower Hamlets who had the temerity to fly the flag of their own country were part of a digital movement called 'Operation Raise the Colours'. The flag bug is spreading. From Swindon to Bradford, Norwich to Newcastle, the English flag and the Union flag are being raised by men and women sick of being told by their supposed betters to feel ashamed of their nation. These are stirring acts of resistance. The guerrilla wavers of the kingdom's flags are implicitly revolting against the post-national, post-borders delirium of our technocratic ruling class. It sometimes seems you can wave any flag in the UK as long as it isn't any of the UK's flags. The Pride flag is festooned in military formation across London's boulevards every Pride month, like we've been conquered by some genderfluid militia. The Palestine flag is inescapable. The Black Lives Matter flag was all the rage a few years back. Liberals wear Ukraine pins on their collars. Some of these people – not all, I know – would run a mile if they ever encountered an 'oik' with a St George's pin on his jumper. So in 21st-century Britain you can be a 'flag-shagger' so long as you aren't 'shagging' the St George's Cross or the Union flag. Wave those flags and you'll be branded a xenophobe, a ruffian, one of the dim little people who hasn't quite caught up with globalist correct-think. The Raise the Colours people are pushing back against the noise and nonsense. Against the hyper-individuating flag of Pride, which promotes the sin of pride in the self, and the anti-Western flag of Palestine, which is really about expressing a frothing hostility to our great ally of Israel, they are waving the unifying flags of this nation. They're hoisting up our kingdom's great emblems of collectivity to counter the divisive, separatist drift of British life under the unforgiving boot of multiculturalism. I'll be honest with you, reader: I was brought up to be wary of the Union flag. In the London-Irish community I come from, no one would have dreamt of waving it. Britpop, with its Union paraphernalia, was a nightmare for us foreign-origin teens. Now? Now I love to see Britain's flags. Symbols of national interest and national pride in an era of woke Balkanisation and anti-Western hysteria? Yes please. Hoist 'em up.
Scottish Sun
7 hours ago
- Scottish Sun
Defiant locals vow to hang hundreds of St George's flags across UK after council sparked fury by tearing them down
It comes after Sir Keir Starmer weighed in on the row FLAG FURY Defiant locals vow to hang hundreds of St George's flags across UK after council sparked fury by tearing them down DEFIANT locals are vowing to hang hundreds of St George's flags across the UK after councils sparked fury by tearing them down. The Union Jack and St George's flags were raised by locals up and down the country as part of a movement online called 'Operation Raise the Colours'. 11 England flags flying on lampposts on Genners Lane along Bartley Reservoir in Birmingham Credit: SWNS 11 A St George's flag is displayed on a street in Tower Hamlets, east London Credit: LNP Advertisement 11 Pictures posted on Operation Raise The Colours Credit: Facebook 11 Flags were also hung on a bridge in Radcliffe, Greater Manchester Credit: LNP Operation Raise the Colours saw flags first raised in East London and Birmingham this month before they were ordered to be taken down. The movement has led to communities across the country hanging up flags on their streets, including Manchester, Bradford, Newcastle, Norwich and the Isle of Wight, in defiance of council bans. Advertisement Activists are continuing to use a Facebook page to help gather flags together. Members are chipping in with offers of transport and equipment, such as ladders. One user posted: "60 of the 120 just collected... going to be a busy few evenings." A second wrote: "I just feel that the time has come to all band together and refuse to be bullied, we are proud of our country and should not be made to feel otherwise." Advertisement It comes after Sir Keir Starmer said he 'absolutely' supports people putting up English flags amid the row, a spokesperson said. Mayor of Tower Hamlets Lutfur Rahman, who was found guilty of electoral fraud in 2015, has thwarted the campaign. The national flags will now be ripped down "as part of routine maintenance". Residents hit out after Tower Hamlets Council in east London announced the patriotic displays would be removed. Group members have vowed to redouble their efforts and rejected criticism the movement is "aggressive". Advertisement And the PM 'absolutely' supports people putting up the English flags, it was revealed. Protesters arrested near migrant hotel after 'asylum seeker guest' arrested on suspicion of assault Asked about the saga, the PM's spokesman said: 'I haven't asked him about specific cases, specific councils, but I think the PM has always talked about his pride in being British, the patriotism he feels." Pressed if he supports people flying the English flag, the spokesman said: 'Absolutely - we put up English flags all around Downing Street every time the English football team, women's and men's are out, trying to win games for us.' However, the PM stopped short of commenting on individual cases such as the disputes in Birmingham and Tower Hamlets. Shadow Home Secretary Chris Philp slammed the "two-tier policy" earlier this week. Advertisement "The Union Flag and St George's Cross are part of our national identity," he said. "Displaying these flags shouldn't just be allowed - it should be encouraged, and they should fly with pride "Councils like Birmingham and Tower Hamlets allowed flags of other counties to be displayed for weeks or months. "But at the first sign of our national flags and they come straight down. "More two tier policy. It is simply wrong.' Advertisement 11 Residents raising flags in Tower Hamlets Credit: instagram/@ 11 Patriotic flags tied to lamp posts in Birmingham Credit: BPM 11 Flags raised in Tower Hamlets, east London Credit: LNP 11 A picture posted online on the Facebook group Credit: Facebook But a spokesperson for the council said: "We are aware members of the public have been putting up St George's flags on various structures. Advertisement "While we recognise people wish to express their views, we have a responsibility to monitor and maintain council infrastructure. "Where flags are attached to council-owned infrastructure without permission, they may be removed as part of routine maintenance." This comes after locals put up the St George's flags on houses and streetlights in Northfield, Birmingham, in what was described as a show of "patriotic outpouring". The Union Jack and St George's flags were put up using ladders and cable ties by a group of residents called the Weoley Warriors. Funded by £2,500 of public donations, the campaign is intended to 'show Birmingham and the rest of the country of how proud we are of our history, freedoms and achievements'. Advertisement But Birmingham City Council confirmed the flags will be removed, saying the "unauthorised items" are "dangerous" and could potentially kill motorists and pedestrians. The council said that the extra weight could "potentially lead to collapse" in the future. 11 A residential street in Radcliffe was covered with flags Credit: LNP 11 A roundabout at the junction of Haunch Lane and Warstock Lane in Birmingham was painted over Credit: SWNS:South West News Service 11 Another flag displayed on a street in Tower Hamlets Credit: LNP
Daily Record
8 hours ago
- Daily Record
Nicola Sturgeon on her 'biggest regrets' and growing up in Ayrshire
The former First Minister spoke ahead of her new memoir being released. Former First Minister Nicola Sturgeon reflects fondly on her strong North and South Ayrshire connections in her new memoir, Frankly. Born in Ayrshire Central Hospital on July 19, 1970, she spent the first two years in a cottage owned by her mum's Aunt Jean until the family waited for a council house to become available in Dreghorn. Then parents Robin and Joan moved into their new home within Irvine, the only New Town on the coast. She was close to her maternal grandparents, Marjory and Kerr 'Bobo' Ferguson, who was captain of the junior players at Prestwick St Cuthbert Golf Club and she was occasionally allowed to walk around the course with him while he was playing. A former hairdresser, Marjory was the much more 'vivacious' of the two although suffered unpredictable mood swings. He became housebound in his later years and died when Nicola was only in second year at University when he was only in his early sixties. Marjory died of cancer aged just 62 in October, 1991. She was even closer to paternal grandparents, Margaret and Rob Sturgeon and recalls many trips to their Dunure home with stunning views of Ailsa Craig. In August, 1982 she started Greenwood Academy after progressing through Dreghorn Primary. English, Latin and unsurprisingly Modern Studies were among her favourite subjects. She recalls how for a long time she enjoyed hanging around with her best pal Shelley but made excuses not to go out as she had studying to do and they eventually stopped being friends. She went on to Glasgow University, from where she graduated with a Bachelor of Law (Hons) in 1992. Meanwhile, the forrmer First Minister laid bare her regrets as well as underlining what she considered successes as she spoke to top journalist and fellow Ayrshire-woman Kirsty Wark at the Edinburgh Book Festival on Thursday to launch her revealing new memoir, Frankly. The Irvine-born native has become a political giant, ascending to Scotland's highest office during her political career. But she is just five feet four and admitted that a fear of failure at school had driven her on to be a success. Describing the event as a hot ticket, Kirsty said she had a strong sense of destiny and a feeling that whatever she did in her life would not be ordinary and would attract attention. In 1991, future First Minister Alex Salmond called her to ask if she would stand as a candidate in the 1992 General Election. Her inner persona was different to her public role and she admitted that was something she had to work on. Asked about Salmond, whom she would later fall out with, she said: 'Alex was an incredibly charismatic individual and for much of my life he was a force for good. He would push me on. We became an incredible partnership and complemented each other. But what happened later happened. 'His approval when I was First Minister mattered to me and his disapproval knocked my confidence. 'He left me to draw up the white paper for Independence and told me he would read it on the plane to China but I knew it would not survive the first glass of in-flight champagne. 'I thought we were going to win the referendum but Alex said he would step down if we lost it and I didn't believe him. But he told me quickly he was announcing his resignation and I tried to talk him out of it but he went ahead.' Asked about failing to eliminate the attainment gap she said: 'This is possibly one of my biggest regrets. 'The attainment gap is beginning to close. At the time I made the promise, I probably wasn't appreciating as I quickly came to do much the factors that would influence that and the driving cause of the attainment gap is poverty, the conditions children grow up in outside school. 'Some of the things I am proudest of are the Scottish Child payment, doubling of Early Years education and the Baby Box are things which are lifting children out of poverty and I believe in time they will make a difference. 'We need to do even more than we have done to tackle the underlying poverty conditions too many kids are growing up in but it will work through the system.' She weighed into the gender debate by saying that she did not feel there was an irreconcilable difference between women's rights and trans rights. But she admits she could have paused discussions on the gender bill although the issue had been weaponised by transphobics. Salmond, she said, played a big part in her life, especially in the 2007 and 2011 elections when the party seized power but it was very difficult to reconcile their relationship after the court case which followed the allegations against him. She said she was proud to have won eight elections in succession with the SNP. But asked about the Constitution, she felt the monarchy had lost nits relevance since the late Queen died. Sturgeon saw her short-term future in London as it was good to see your own country from elsewhere. She concluded by saying that only seven years had passed since she became on became the youngest ever parliamentary candidate in Scotland in the 1992 General Election in 1992 and it took Scotland just seven years to have a Parliament up and running. Independence, she added may be 'closer than we think'.
